The surreptitious rain and the evening sky

Today it rained rather surreptitiously a couple of times. Bits of the outside tiles were a little bit wet. Several drops fell on the washing. I noticed one of the pot plants out the front was looking a bit droopy, so hastened to water it, only to notice as I did so that it was raining surreptitiously again.

The evening sky, with its goodly sprinkle of grey clouds, is golden.

I keep walking past my lovely sideboard. I stroke it fondly every time.

The last Thursday Italian class was this morning. We all brought something for a little party. I made ricciarelli, delicious Tuscan almond biscuits. The mixture is supposed to stand for a few hours, although I sometimes skip this step. Dr P nicked two of the uncooked biscotti. Bad!

The class was fun. Everyone wrote something on a topic of their own choices. These ranged from the good (ie non Mafia) things about Italy, the recent aqua alta in Rome and Venice, baptism by total immersion, Milton and Paradise lost, my frippery piece on why I had not done my intended topic because when the computer froze I lost my unsaved document, and a very moving piece on an Italian diplomat in Hungary during the war, who saved thousands of Jews, and who, after his lifetime of never mentioning to anyone his good deeds, has been commemorated in Yad Vashem. This made me weep.

After our little party we went off to our usual coffee at O'Coffey's cafe. We were required to sing Adeste Fideles, in Latin, so did so. All the people walking past stopped, listened and applauded. Mr O'Coffey himself gave us all a peppermint cream.

I came home and my friend was there by arrangement using my oven to cook cakes for her husband's 80th birthday party. Her oven died yesterday so she is oven hopping. My oven was too slow for her, so her cakes were a bit undercooked. She used one of my Orrefors glasses to crack her eggs. I was rather taken aback. But the glass survived.

Yesterday D 3 wiped out my Internet History. I was a bit put out, as I do use this from time to time to revisit sites, such as blogs, or news - or whatever - which I have not wanted to bookmark. And it has all gone. I wonder why people would do this on someone else's computer without checking first.

Having people stay in your house means that things do not run in their normal way. The toilet upstairs needs to be jiggled when it keeps running after it has been flushed. People forget. They don't know you can't use the microwave if the dishwasher is running. They both stop. This means the dishwasher load did not complete its cycle.

I should be packing for the Melbourne trip now, or wrapping presents, or both. Tomorrow is a very busy day and I have to catch the plane. It will be a late night, I think. I am so looking forward to the trip. 

I am about to pour myself a glass of red wine, to go with the gratin I just threw together, and which will be ready shortly.